LEWISTON ”“ They felt it.
If not when Trevor Fleurent scored the first goal, then when Travis Guay scored the second.
And if not then, then when Fleurent scored Biddeford’s third goal.
And if not then, then when?
“When the final horn sounded,” said Biddeford coach Rich Reissfelder, moments after his top seeded Tigers captured their third Western Maine Class-A championship with a solid 3-0 win over No. 2 Thornton Academy, before about
2,000 souls at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. “That’s when I felt it was safe.”
Safe to bask in the moment, for the moment. The hard work of preparing to face Eastern champions, Waterville in
Saturday’s state championship game ”“ also at the Colisee ”“ could sit over night.
The Tigers had something to savor, and were happily doing just that.
“I have no idea (what to expect),” said goalie Matt Roy, who couldn’t have picked a better time to twirl his first
career shutout, a 26 save gem. “I’ve never been here before.”
Roy is among the few Tigers who haven’t.
Seven of the current bunch played on both of Biddeford’s state title winners, in 2007 and 2008.
“It feels great,” said top line senior winger Derek Reny. “Hopefully we can do it three times.”
The Tigers could scarcely have asked for a better start against Thornton, their ancient rivals from across the Saco River.Biddeford stormed out to a 2-0 lead, after having fired 11 shots at Trojans’ goalie Rick Hebb in the opening eight minutes.
“We knew we were going to have to play hard,” said Reny. “We knew TA was going to give it everything they had. We went out as hard as we did, and look what happened.”
Fleurent started the scoring while Biddeford was on a power play, at 4:29. Fleurent took a point feed from Eric Grover and rifled in his shot from the slot.
“It seems like all the traffic was up front,” said Fleurent. “I just shot it. It went my way.”
That was followed by a goal from Guay, a fourth line winger, who had been looking for his first goal of the season.
“I was in the zone,” said Guay, who missed all but two games of this,
his junior year with injuries. “I saw it coming. I had to do it.”
Guay steamed down the right boards, then unloaded from the right circle, finding a small space just over Hebb’s shoulder.
“I thought I may as well go high,” said Guay. “Go top shelf. It was real quick and slow motion at the same time.”
Thornton picked its game up in the second stanza, but although the Trojans enjoyed a 10-2 shots advantage, most of them ”˜onesies’ from the perimeter, they couldn’t cut into the Biddeford lead.
“Often during the game,” said Thornton coach Shawn Rousseau, who guided the Trojans to their best mark ever (17-3-1), “I felt like we couldn’t get anything going. As frustrated as I felt like a coach, at some point you’ve got to (sit) back and say we played 19 games and were very effective. Suddenly we can’t (be). What does that mean?
“The truth is that Biddeford played incredibly well. (They) won all the individual battles out there, and limited what we were able to get completed.”
The Tigers appeared to have upped their lead to three goals at 12:30, but Scott Callahan’s goal from close range was wiped out by a hand pass call.
However, at 1:42, with the Tigers working on the first of three third period power plays, Fleurent netted his second of the night, with Grover picking up his second assist.
There was still nearly a full period to play, but by then, the Western championship was Biddeford’s to take. The Tigers were beginning to feel it.
“The last few seconds,” said Roy, who ones attended and played for Thornton, “it finally kicked in. Everything started clicking. It was like a surreal moment.”
— Contact Staff Writer Dan Hickling at dhickling@journaltribune.com.
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